Friday, January 16, 2015

Five for Friday - Join Me for "Fun Friday"

Happy Friday!

Around here that means "Fun Friday" which is often just too much "fun" for me. ;-) My husband is always teasing me about it…the kids are pumped and excited for "Fun Friday" every week and at some point in the morning as I get ready I will sarcastically say, "It's Fun Friday!"

Why is it so much fun (for them)?

Well, let's just say we break away from routines.

I love routines.

I thought it might be fun to invite you along for today's "Fun Friday" for my Five for Friday (thanks DoodleBugs).

We usually start Fridays by practicing our spelling words on a whiteboard with partners for a few minutes before taking our test. So exciting!

Then we do a shortened version of Daily 5. The group on Time with Teacher usually gets to play a game while I'm conferencing with other kids. This week they played our "I Have…Who Has…?" game. They love to play these…we have one for each unit and as you may know an insane amount of them for different phonics skills in our TPT and TN stores. This particular group is so quick with the words that they get to time themselves and see if they can "beat their time."

After Daily 5, I send the little kiddos off to recess. Teachers do not have recess duty this year. Whoop! Whoop! This was sort of a trade-off because we don't actually have a plan time during the day since we teach our own specials. Technically, our plan time is before and after school.

After recess, we have MTSS (maybe RTI where you are at) groups.

When they get back, we have a little time to work. All of their work must be finished if they are going to do "Fun Friday."

Math on Fridays is usually a game day or a test day or both. Today was game day. We played "Scoot!" using our "I Have…Who Has…?" game cards to practice telling time to five minutes. Click here for an explanation about how I easily turned these cards into a "Scoot!" game.

After math, we do an activity as a reward for STAR homework (idea from Amanda Madden). Today we went outside for extra recess because we have been stuck indoors for weeks and it was finally in the 50s today! I hope parents forgive me…as the information letter about STAR homework says we will earn learning game time.

Then we came back in and the "fun" really begins. I announce Dojo points for the week and the students sign up for their reward.

Then the kids choose their "Fun Friday" activity. Some of the favorites are board games, legos, write/draw on the whiteboard, painting, and play-doh. Think indoor recess activities. I totally stole this idea from Kristin at A Teeny Tiny Teacher. This 20-30 minutes of "fun" gives me a few minutes to get some things done for next week. It's definitely a win-win. The kids earn a fun reward for working hard, and I get a few minutes of prep time…unless I decide to sit down and do a puzzle or something with one of my kiddos which is my kind of "fun." :-)